


Personal Space

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Cursed Dean Winchester, Cursed Sam Winchester, Gen, Long-suffering Castiel (Supernatural), Platonic Cuddling, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Sneaky Winchesters, Touch-Starved Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 22:31:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17886356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Dean and Sam get hit with a curse that provokes terror and anxiety.The only treatment is hugs from their angel, which Cas is happy to supply.





	Personal Space

“I can’t reach the remote from here,” Dean said. 

No, whined. He _whined_ it, and Castiel grit his teeth and tried to remember that Dean was his family, _proper_ family, and as such deserved his patience, tolerance and understanding.

“Casssss, c’mon, dude, change the channel. I’m not watching some shitty nature documentary.”

“ _I’m_ watching the shitty nature documentary,” Sam piped up, from his other side. “Cas, leave it where it is.”

“Hell, no.”

“Hell, yes. And you got us into this, so I’m picking what we watch.”

“The fuck you think.”

“The fuck I _know_.”

For that one moment, consequences be damned, Castiel was tempted to withdraw what Rowena had sarcastically referred to as ‘hugging privileges’ and let the two _children_ he was encumbered with sort their predicament out for themselves.

But, he couldn’t, and wouldn’t.

Sam, like Dean, was his family, and that meant that even when they were being _assholes_ , he had to put up with them.

“It was no-one’s fault,” he said, surprised his voice came out level and not one decibel short of a scream. “And I’ll decide what we watch.”

He focused his Grace on the television, flicked at speed through the channels, and stopped when he recognised a film that would hopefully appeal to both his humans.

Indiana Jones narrowly avoided death by poisoned date, and Dean made a satisfied little sound before burrowing deeper against him.

Sam started to relax.

Cas took the opportunity to hold them a little tighter. He hadn’t lied when he’d said their predicament was no one’s fault.

They weren’t to know the old abandoned shack was actually a covert temple to an old pagan god, or that the half mad deity would think they were the people who’d tried to kill him a millennia before.

He was just grateful that the being was so weak that his curse, intended to kill, had much milder, if unpleasant, results.

It would wear off but,until then, if deprived of his physical comfort the brothers would be much as they were when Cas had raced to answer their panicked prayers: terrified beyond all reason, unable to function as they became convinced anything and everything disastrous was about to befall them.

Seeing them so scared had driven Cas almost mad himself, but with rage; there hadn’t been time to deal with their attacker, then, not with two stricken humans to care for.

Rowena and Mary had, cautiously, paid the shack a visit, but found it empty. Either the old deity had fled, or faded, having wielded the last of his power against the brothers.

At least, Cas supposed, the way to help them was easy and painless enough, and they weren’t suffering so long as he kept them close.

While Dean had bitched about it, he hadn’t resisted overly much when Cas had finally got them into the motel room, to wait out the curse, and settled against the headboard, and nestled each of them in close, hugging them into position.

While he would have preferred different circumstances, Cas truly didn’t mind it especially once the brothers had settled down. He had been a stranger to touch, even among his brothers and sisters in Heaven.

It wasn’t that in their natural forms they had no physical contact, but it was only done when necessary, and that was rare enough.

And he…. Other than instances of chastisement, he had only rarely experienced it.

But then he had taken a vessel, his body now, and met the Winchesters and they were both so _tactile_. Cas had gone from not understanding why humans spent so much time in physical connection with each other to _needing_ it.

This…. Having his family tucked in so close was bliss to him, but he knew as soon as the curse faded, they would get up and pretend it hadn’t happened.

_Glad you’re alive_ hugs, nudges, and playfights were one thing, it seemed. This, quite another.

Dean shifted, as if uneasy, and Cas glanced down at him. Yes, he supposed Dean would find it hardest of both brothers.

“Probably another few hours,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t undo the curse, Dean.”

He didn’t miss the guilty look Dean flashed him, or the sharp nod from Sam.

“What’s going on?” If there was some facet of the curse they hadn’t revealed to him, something it might now be too late to do anything about…

“Hey, hey,” Dean said, as if Cas’s fears had appeared on his face. “It’s okay...Just…. Um….we’re kind of not cursed, anymore.”

Cas stared at him. “Anymore?”

Sam poked him gently in the side to get his attention. “It sort of faded away about five minutes after we, uh, started to….”

Dean was the one glaring now. “Don’t say it.”

“Snuggle,” Sam said, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

“Fucker,” Dean muttered. “Yeah, okay, snuggle. And, well, you know, it was just…”

“Comfortable,” Sam finished, and sometimes Cas wondered how he ever managed to have a full conversation with either of them when the other wasn’t present.

“So, instead of simply admitting you were comfortable, and didn’t want to stop _snuggling_ ,” Cas said, and felt a slightly immature spark of pleasure when Dean winced, “you preferred to let me worry about you both remaining under the influence of a curse that caused you to experience extreme fear and anxiety.”

Neither of them could look at him then. Sam actually started to fiddle with one of the buttons on Cas’s shirt, and in all his years of being around humans, that was possible the cutest thing he had ever seen.

He couldn’t keep it going, though, not with these two, and tugged them in even closer.

“Cas?” Dean asked.

Cas nodded towards the television. “Sssh. I always enjoy this one.”


End file.
